Industry News

It's been a long time since Reference Recordings have made their wares available on vinyl, but that will soon change. On September 2nd, Reference Recordings are releasing two new records in their Reference Mastercuts Series.

The first of these is Dick Hyman's From the Age of Swing (RM-2501, $49.98 list price), a two LP set pressed at 45 RPM. The second record is Stravinsky's Firebird Suite and The Song of the Nightingale (RM-1502, $34.98 list price), performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, conducted by Eiji Oue. This record will be a single 33 RPM LP.

Both records were recorded by "Prof." Johnson, and are half-speed mastered to ensure maximum accuracy. Plating and pressing is courtesy of Chad Kassem's Quality Record Pressings.

The number of discs and speed of each release in the new Reference Mastercuts series depends on the program length. All will feature 200g discs, and will be housed in deluxe gatefold jackets made by Stoughton Printing.

An unusual feature of these new records is one which Reference Recordings calls the "FDS finish". The end of each side has a 30-second band of silence before the pull away, which enables the listener to raise the tone arm before the always-somewhat-noisy tie-off.

Future releases in the Reference Mastercuts Series include recordings by The Hot Club of San Francisco, Minoru Nojima, the Dallas Wind Symphony, and the Kansas City Symphony.

It'll be very interesting to hear what these new releases sound like. Until then, here's a link to the full press release.